Original Articles
Perceived stigmatization among overweight African-American and caucasian adolescent girls

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(98)00044-5Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: To explore how African-American and Caucasian adolescent girls describe weight-related stigmatization experiences and their responses to these experiences.

Methodology: Fifty girls from five urban Midwest high schools participated in the study (mean age 16.1 years, mean body mass index 33.6). The girls participated in clinical research interviews, which were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded.

Results: All but two of the participants described stigmatizing experiences, the most frequently reported of which were direct and intentional, such as name calling and teasing. Hurtful comments and behaviors by family members and peers which appeared to be less intentional were also described by study participants. Responses to these experiences varied both within and across interviews and included ignoring or attempting to ignore hurtful experiences, feeling hurt, and getting mad.

Conclusions: The results stress the importance of discussing issues of stigmatization and responses to these hurtful experiences with overweight youth within clinical and educational settings. Furthermore, family members, teachers, and nonoverweight peers need to increase their awareness of the impact of their remarks on and behavior toward overweight youth within a society that values thinness. © Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1998

Section snippets

Study sample and research design

The study sample was drawn from five high schools within the St. Paul, Minnesota, public school district. This district was selected owing to its high percentages of youth from minority and low socioeconomic backgrounds. The study sample included 50 adolescent girls: 24 African-Americans and 26 Caucasians. The mean age of both the African-American and Caucasian girls was 16.1 years [standard deniation (SD) 1.2]. Adolescents were eligible for inclusion in the study if their body mass index (BMI)

Results

The results are presented by the themes which emerged under the categories of occurrence of stigmatizing/hurtful experiences, responses to hurtful experiences, and perceptions of discrimination: obesity versus race.

Discussion

The findings of this exploratory study indicate that overweight adolescent girls face stigmatization which may take a number of different forms. By far, the most frequently reported stigmatizing experiences were of a direct and intentional nature and included joking around at someone’s expense, name calling, and teasing. However, the girls also described hurtful situations of a less direct and intentional nature. Hurtful situations were most likely to occur in the home or school, with family

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the study participants who have enlightened them through the sharing of their experiences. They are also grateful to Irene Alton, M.S., R.D., who was responsible for participant recruitment; to Jill Ohlson and Michelle Adamiak, who interviewed the participants and assisted in the content coding; and to Tanya Harris and RoseAnna Holiday, who assisted in the profile-based coding. This study was made possible through grants from the American Heart

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